So, it's no secret that the Linux desktop - at least, the GNOME-side of things - is a bit in a state of disarray. Unity hasn't exactly gone down well with a lot of people, and GNOME 3, too, hasn't been met with universal praise. So, what to do? Linux Mint, currently one of the most popular Linux distributions out there, thinks they are on to the solution with their latest release, Linux Mint 12.

Yes, I miss the menu which also included an easy way to access your favorite... but I don't think it's ugly, with the correct theme (greybird), it's not "ugly" in my opinion. And you can also change the mouse theme.

Sincerely, once you overcome the window switching in GNOME Shell, I don't see XFCE any relevant. Shell sports a better theme in my opinion. When GNOME is 3.6 I believe many things will be improved, and Wayland can play a part on this too, with both GNOME and KDE.